There's been an explosion (sometimes literally) in natural gas drilling in the Northeast, but the tradeoff for this fossil-fuel energy could mean highly contaminated drinking water.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—With no stringent regulations in place and a Bush-era exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act, natural gas drilling companies are flocking to areas containing Marcellus Shale, a deep geological formation found in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia, where natural gas occurs naturally within the rock. The Marcellus Shale formation can be found in 63 percent of Pennsylvania, and also underlies a significant portion of New York.

Until recently, drilling a mile-plus deep shaft into the earth and blasting through this type of shale to release natural gas was inefficient and unprofitable. But thanks to the coupling of two types of technology—horizontal drilling and Halliburton-developed hydraulic fracturing—now, it's just inefficient. With huge gas-drilling companies standing to make a profit using the new combo method, which includes the use of carcinogenic chemicals and millions of gallons of water, the clean drinking-water supplies of millions are at serious risk. And taxpayers could be on the hook to clean up the mess years down the line unless strict regulations are put in place soon.

"Clean water is not limitless; it needs to be protected," says Louis Kaplan, PhD, senior research scientist and principal investigator of biogeochemistry at Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, PA. "Anytime that we consider something like mining for coal or drilling for gas, all of those processes need to be viewed through a lens of environmental protection and sustainability." Right now, that is not the case. And while there's a drilling moratorium in New York as an environmental impact statement is being finalized, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is handing out natural gas drilling permits like Halloween candy, issuing more than 3,500 so far this year alone.

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I had a new water well drilled in the fall of 2009, and it produced wonderful soft clean water. Over the winter months it began to stink and i began to get sick and weak. After three doctors, i began to suspect water contamination. We are in the middle of the gas drilling in Johnson county Texas.This has been quite an eye opening journey, of health,ignorance,greed, and deception at every level. After much research and inquiry, we have decided our best course of action is attempting to filter the water as much as possible,, and sharing what we have learned, so others can protect themselves and their families as best as possible. Also, radioactive components are coming up with backflow water, as the local scrap metal yard routinely checks all scrap from well sites with geiger counter. If we continue with these practices, it is only a matter of time before we extinguish life as we know it on this planet. Instead of going out with a bang, it will be a slow poisonous passing.

30 seconds to change from poisons to organics?
Since most of us don’t enjoy being “Lab Rats”, drinking toxic drilling fluids, below you will find 2 petitions:
A State Petition & A Federal Petition

It takes 30 seconds to fill in your name on both the state and federal petitions.

Your name can be withheld and not published if you are shy from making your support known to “Ban toxic chemicals used in the drilling fluids” or the “Villains & Toxic Genocide” petitions. Click the box to remain anonymous if you desire.

But every vote counts. Let’s get “Poison” out of the drilling fluids, Lady Obama believes in "Organic" and so do we.

Note: An official in DC is currently taking a stand requesting a moratorium in PA against gas lease permits.

This is easy...just fill in your name, zip code and it will go to your state official.

They may use gelled propane to reduce friction and help the sand flow into the shale cracks there, but it is a different process here in the states. The stuff the gas drilling companies use here contains things like diesel, fermaldehyde, ethylene glycol, isopropanol, benzene and so on. This has led to aquifer pollution in various places in this country. Also, many cases of live stock death has resulted because of the flowback water stored above ground in catch basins. Doesn't sound to me like it is something you would chill on ice to drink with your afternoon sandwich. Why then would you want it in the ground?

Don't believe it is toxic? Find the story about the gas rig worker that was soaked by a toxic drilling chemical in Colorado. He went to the hospital. After about 10 minutes of exposure, the nurse treating him fell incredibly ill. In the days after, she experienced renal failure, lung failure, liver failure, and blurred vision/dizziness. Even as she laid in the ICU not knowing if she was going to die, the gas drilling company would not tell the doctors what she was exposed to so she could be treated properly. By law, they didn't have to, and even when they knew a life may depend on it (the life of a person who sacrificed her health to help one of their own employees) they clammered up wouldn't budge an inch. Heck, just one person coming in soaked with the stuff resulted in the summoning of a Haz Mat crew that had to evacuate the ER and ventilate it with fans for the chemical vapors to dissipate. Do you really think that these people give one damn more about you or me? I don't care how much they pretend to care, or how big their smile is, the answer is No! And, in fact, when Colorado mentioned legislation to make public what was in fracking chemicals, Haliburton threatened to drop everything and leave the state. Yeah, they really care about jobs and the local economy. Sounds more like an adolescent temper tantrum from someone that isn't gettig their way, not a sound mature business crew. The kind of tantrum little kids throw when mommy won't buy them the toy that Tommy or Sally has across the street. They say their covert little mix is a trade secret. Any good chemist or chemical engineer could figure it out. It's not a secret, they just don't want you to know how bad it really is for you.

In fact, a group of gas drillers got together after outrage increased in Colorado over this incident to propose a new MSDS on the product in question. In their proposal, common chemicals would be listed along with health effects, hazards, how to clean it up, and how to dispose of it. However, chemicals that were called part of a trade secret were proposed by the companies to simply be listed with no info on toxicity or proper clean up. What the hell does the toxicity of a chemical have to do with it being a trade secret. If you really wanted to keep the chemical secret, you wouldn't list what it was, toxicity would have no relevance on the issue, only what it was, and the use!!!! We better get serious here and quit believing every smiling, warm, cuddly business suit that tells us we are facing doom if we don't see things the way they do. After all, they are the ones that stand to make the most from the deal, not us. Just think, they are making billions of dollars off of resources owned by citizens of this country, and in turn, setting the rules of their removal. Remember the old Buggs Bunny cartoons where Elmer Fudd would turn into a jackass just before he plummeted to his demise from the cliff he just ran off of? I think you get my point.

Natural gas is the cleanest and least CO2 producing fuel there is. Those who don't want to utilize it may need to move south to Florida. Or, perhaps the population of the country could be reduced by say, 70% to reduce demand.

I have been on a drill site and talked to officials of Range Resources and I can tell you that they really care about the consequences of their work.

The Canadian process uses gelled propane and sand as the frac fluid. Very little is left in the ground and it is either flared or recovered; not sent to waste treatement plants.

I am sick and tired of the companies that just think that they can do what they want to make a profit while it jeapardizes the lives of millions of people.
They need to be held accountable for what they do.
The LOUSY GOVERNMENT that we have allows this to go on and we end up paying for it as well.
When is this going to stop ??
I have family that I love and cherish and would like to have them around for a long time.
Please help the American people from this kind of horrific problem.
We can't do this alone we need everyones support in this.

Posted on November 21st, 2009 by Ex Employee of Nomac Drilling and or Chesapeake Energy

I worked on a Drilling Rig in Bradford county,Pennsylvania!. The location, had so much drilling mud spilt on it, I was ashamed to be apart of the crew. I did not like all of the spilling of dry chemicals, and tried to clean up all that I could. The chemical spills are a case of employees not giving a shit about their wrong doing, getting in a hurry and sticking the forks of the fork lift into sacks, not the palet. None the less, the heavilly over weight trucks, hauling the drilling rigs equipment on the rig moves. If Chesapeake gets as many rigs in the area, that they want. The roads in that area, will be crushed and destroyed, and no good to anyone wanting to have a safe ride down the road.I myself am hopeing to put a stop to the polluteing of our ground water, from useing drilling mud,and looking forward to drilling the hole on straight air, Dust the hole to TD... Most of all the Employees of this company are from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other states than Pa., N.Y., and W.Va., and this also makes me unhappy!, put the Pennsylvanians to work...

.... And the very wealthy will be made even wealthier at the expense of all the rest of us, thru corporate politics, deception, etc. Everyone's health is at risk, altho the very wealthy live or can travel to somewhere else where they'll be obliviously safe, for awhile.

Massive water usage and toxification (= ruination forever) is only part of the dire consequences of this misguided and misleadingly advertised "solution" to other fossil-fuel problems. There's also air pollution, noise pollution, road destruction, deforestation to build well-pads and pipelines, many potential accidents as have increasingly happened elsewhere, poisoning wildlife and plant-life as well as our own agriculture-dependent bull-headed increasingly short-sighted species.

We need to resist & stop this steamroller before it's too late. There is really no sufficient remediation possible afterwards. Please join with others to educate and press your local, state, and federal legislators and regulators to do the right thing here. "Economic development" or "rescue from economic downturn" or "alternative to polluting fuels" are all tempting catch-phrases that don't describe the trade-offs of supposed benefits vs. certain harms.

Much information and evidence is available on this. Let's not be victims by ignorance or default!

I don't understand how a species that presumes to be the most intelligent can even consider drilling for natural gas if this is how it has to be done. Given the track records of the various agencies set up to protect the environment but pressured by political interests that are funded by business it is inadvisable - to say the very least - to allow this happen.